Irda Ranger
First Post
Here are my thoughts on how 2E could be better, if you're looking for suggestions. There's also a good discussion on Non-Weapon Proficiencies (primarily, their drawbacks) here.
Per Psion, a "Fixed" Edition. No wheel reinvention, but fix the worst stuff that everyone house rules anyway.1.) Would people be interested in a "faithful" conversion (keeping as much of 2e as possible) or would people be interesting in making a "perfect" edition that fixes and tweaks some poor elements of the game?
I'd keep it to the PHB for the first draft. Don't bite off more than you can chew. You can always release splats later.2.) The original 2e PHB had six races (human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, half-elf) and nine classes (fighter, ranger, paladin, mage, illusionist, cleric, druid, thief, bard and rules for making specialist wizards and priests). Using the OGL though, you could re-create 2e monks, barbarians, assassins, half-orcs, tieflings, and much of the Complete Book of Humanoids. Would this be a worthwhile consideration; expanding the "core"?
To the extend they were intended to "fix" the core I would include them in the first release. Add-ons can wait.3.) Later books (particularly Spells & Magic) re-organized spell schools, added bennies for specialist wizards, and generally fixed spellcasting classes a bit. Would these changes be welcomed, or would (again) a core-only approach be welcomed?
Yes, but see my first link above. There should be a strong concept as to what a Kit is, and how it effects the class it modifies. Unless the bounds of kits are clearly established ahead of time they can get out of hand. I think the best way to do that is to make them mandatory but have a strong default Kit for each class that serves as a template for future kits.4.) Kits; yes or no? Specifically, if there were kits, should they be build from the ground up or reproduced from original sources (more or less)?
Fix it or kill it. See the second link above for an in depth discussion.5.) Fixes to the Non-Weapon Proficiency system or left as is?
Down. It's not as intuitive, but it's easy enough and it's compatable with already released materials.6.) Upward or downward scaling AC?
2E needs a reason to play humans. Level limits suck as a balancing system.7.) Any more ideas, comments or concerns?